The Dutch government has seized control of Chinese owned chipmaker Nexperia

[Ravenlocke]

[Hello Mods,
I am starting this thread about the Nesperia story, but if there is n existing thread where this should go please do so, Thank you.

DD Geopolitics

Oct 13
🇳🇱🇨🇳 Netherlands Invokes Wartime “Goods Availability Act” to Seize Chinese-Owned Chipmaker Nexperia

The Dutch government has seized control of Nexperia, a major semiconductor manufacturer, citing “national security” concerns over its Chinese parent company, Wingtech. The decision marks yet another politically motivated move by an EU state to undermine Chinese technology investment under pressure from Washington.

Wingtech’s shares fell 10% in Shanghai following the announcement. The company said it is consulting with lawyers and seeking government protection for its legitimate interests, stressing that its operations fully comply with international laws and export regulations.

The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs called the intervention “exceptional,” claiming it was necessary to safeguard “European technological capabilities.” In reality, the move was carried out under the Goods Availability Act — a Cold War–era emergency law meant to guarantee the supply of essential goods in wartime. Invoking it against a peaceful Chinese investor is unprecedented and blatantly political. It grants the Dutch state the power to suspend company directors, override management decisions, and install government-appointed trustees under the pretext of “protecting strategic knowledge.”

Wingtech confirmed that its rights as owner have been “temporarily restricted,” while Nexperia’s Chinese chairman, Zhang Xuezheng, has been suspended by court order. A “non-Chinese” figure with a decisive vote is to be installed instead.

ℹ️Nexperia, originally part of Philips before Wingtech’s $3.6 billion acquisition in 2018, remains one of the world’s largest producers of essential semiconductors for the automotive and electronics industries. Its technologies are vital for global supply chains — and the EU’s attempt to seize control under a wartime law exposes the bloc’s growing hostility toward Chinese innovation and its subservience to U.S. geopolitical dictates.

https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1977678671386173480

1977678671386173480


Jos Quinten

🇺🇸🇨🇳🇳🇱 US forces Dutch government to seize Chinese chipmaker

Dutch authorities took control of the Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia following significant pressure from Washington, Politico reported on Tuesday, citing newly released court documents. The Netherlands-based company was seized earlier this month.

The news comes amid escalating trade tensions between the US and China, marked by disputes over tariffs, export controls, and technology transfers.

The production of semiconductors remains a particularly sensitive area due to its critical role in global technology and security, as they have both civilian and military uses.

Officials from the Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry and representatives from a US agency responsible for protecting critical technology reportedly met in June to discuss the Dutch-based chipmaker, which is owned by the Chinese group Wingtech.

During the meeting, US officials reportedly emphasized that the company’s CEO, Wingtech founder Zhang Xuezheng, must be removed in order to avoid US export controls.

“It is problematic that the CEO of the company is still the same Chinese owner,” the US said, according to the minutes quoted in the documents. “It’s almost certain that the CEO should be replaced to qualify for an exemption on the entity list.”

The Dutch Economic Ministry stated earlier this week that it intervened in Nexperia due to “recent and acute signals of serious governance shortcomings and actions” within the company. It cited alleged risks to “technological expertise and capabilities in the Netherlands and Europe.”

The authorities invoked never-before-used powers under a Dutch law known as the Availability of Goods Act. The decision led to a 10% fall in Wingtech’s shares in Shanghai.

Wingtech condemned the intervention as “an act of excessive interference driven by geopolitical bias, not by fact-based risk assessment,” according to a now-deleted message on WeChat, which was archived and translated by the Chinese political blog Pekingnology.

On Tuesday, Reuters quoted Nexperia as saying it is currently facing export restrictions imposed by both US and Chinese authorities and is negotiating with both sides.

While Washington has not directly added the company to its Entity List, it has been affected due to its full ownership by China’s Wingtech, which was listed by the US Department of Commerce in December 2024.

– Politico https://rt.com/business/626491-us-forced-dutch-seize-chipmaker/


https://x.com/TaranQ/status/1978490009595302294

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[Ravenlocke]

Financial Times
@FT
·
Oct 14
FT Exclusive: The Dutch government seized control of chipmaker Nexperia after Washington warned the company would not be removed from its export control list if its Chinese chief executive Zhang Xuezheng remained in charge, according to court filings. https://on.ft.com/4obhY0Q

https://x.com/FT/status/1978038124539212152

1978038124539212152

[Ravenlocke]

Reuters
@Reuters
·
19h
Dutch seizure of Nexperia followed US pressure over Chinese CEO http://reut.rs/4ofUebX

https://x.com/Reuters/status/1978257088531898537

1978257088531898537

[Ravenlocke]

Spotlight on China
@spotlightoncn
·
16h
China has retaliated against the Dutch government's recent seizure of the Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia by imposing new export controls that block the company from shipping some of its products out of China.

In a statement on Tuesday, Nexperia confirmed that China's Ministry of Commerce had issued an export control notice earlier this month. The notice prohibits Nexperia's large assembly site in Guangdong province, as well as its subcontractors, from exporting certain components. The company said it is now seeking an exemption.

This move from Beijing is a direct response to the Dutch government's "highly exceptional" action to take control of the Netherlands-based chipmaker. The Hague had invoked a Cold War-era law to seize control, stating it was necessary to safeguard "crucial technological knowledge" and ensure Europe retains access to the company's products.

The Chinese retaliation has created a paradoxical outcome. The new export ban may now "undermine Dutch efforts to retain access to the chips," creating a situation where the move to secure the company has resulted in it being cut off from the output of its major assembly plant in China.

As part of the Dutch takeover, a court has suspended Nexperia's CEO, Zhang Xuezheng, who is also the founder of its Chinese parent company, Wingtech. The company's CFO has been appointed as interim CEO.
https://bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-14/china-puts-export-controls-on-nexperia-after-dutch-takeover

https://x.com/spotlightoncn/status/1978298701996245307

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[Ravenlocke]

Arnaud Bertrand
@RnaudBertrand
Interestingly, now that we have more information, the best angle to understand what happened with Nexperia is as an economic proxy war between the U.S. and China, with Europe - as is often the case these days - as the battleground (and therefore the main victim).

As per confirmation from court filings (https://x.com/FT/status/1978038124539212152), it's now clear that the Dutch moved to seize Nexperia because they were told by the U.S. that if they didn't do so the company would end up on the Entity List and would therefore be basically killed by extraterritorial U.S. sanctions.

Which would have been a heavy blow for the Dutch economy because, despite being owned by a Chinese company, Nexperia is headquartered in Holland and employs over 10,000 people in Europe.

And now China's response to the Dutch seizing Nexperia (https://x.com/Sino_Market/status/1978025166656680184) is to deploy their own economic weapon against the company: the company has been banned from Chinese supply chains, which is also pretty much a death warrant for such a business.

So in effect it was a "tails I lose, heads... I lose too" situation for Europe: no matter the response - be it from US financial weaponry or Chinese supply chain weapons - Nexperia would basically be on death row.

Which again illustrates the tragic strategic situation European leaders have put the continent in through decades of terrible choices. There's that saying: "if you're not at the table, you're on the menu"... well in Europe and Nexperia's case it's even worse than this, Nexperia is not being eaten by either side: it's being destroyed to prevent the other from having it. Europe doesn't even get the consolation of getting eaten: they're simply simply collateral damage, crushed like a powerless bug without a second thought about it.

https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1978085002584662448

1978085002584662448

[ExomatrixTV]

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Europe has escalated tensions in the global semiconductor sector with recent government intervention in a Chinese-owned chipmaker. The Dutch move limits foreign control over sensitive technology and affects a key supplier of chips for cars, consumer electronics, and AI data centers. China has reacted strongly, while experts highlight the situation as a signal for India to focus on self-reliance in critical technologies.


Dutch court says Nexperia's Chinese CEO was suspended over "reckless leadership" (https://nltimes.nl/2025/10/14/dutch-court-says-nexperias-chinese-ceo-suspended-reckless-leadership)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexperia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexperia)
bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-14/dutch-seized-nexperia-after-us-demanded-ouster-of-chinese-ceo (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-14/dutch-seized-nexperia-after-us-demanded-ouster-of-chinese-ceo)

Seizing Russian assets, seizing Chinese companies is killing trust in EU. What do you think will go after.

[Ravenlocke]

Arnaud Bertrand reposted

Zichen Wang

Oct 17
Chinese media are reporting that the China-based employees of Nexperia, the Dutch semiconductor company wholly owned by the Chinese company Wingtech, have been cut off from Nexperia in pay and internal system access by the Dutch HQ.

https://x.com/ZichenWanghere/status/1979390827588915465

1979390827588915465


Loong of the east

Oct 19
The Dutch government instructed Nexperia to cut off system communications with its Chinese subsidiary and threatened to withhold employee salaries, attempting to pressure the Chinese subsidiary into acknowledging the Dutch government's predatory actions, accepting the new management team, and resuming business relations.

In response, Nexperia China declared that it is a Chinese company with operations rooted in China and a global strategic vision, and must abide by Chinese laws and operate legally and in compliance with regulations. At all times, Nexperia's domestic subsidiary is an independent Chinese company with independent management and decision-making. The legal representative has the authority to represent the company's will and is ultimately responsible for all operational decisions.

The letter stated that all operations and employee salaries and benefits at Nexperia's domestic subsidiary are operating normally. Currently, the company's production and operations are operating as normal, and all work is progressing in an orderly manner. The board of directors and management are fully committed to ensuring the normal operation of the company and will not allow external forces to influence operations or harm employee interests. All Nexperia team members in China have established employment relationships with the domestic subsidiary, and their salaries, bonuses, and other benefits will continue to be paid by Nexperia's domestic subsidiary, not Nexperia's Dutch subsidiaryThe Dutch government instructed Nexperia to cut off system communications with its Chinese subsidiary and threatened to withhold employee salaries, attempting to pressure the Chinese subsidiary into acknowledging the Dutch government's predatory actions, accepting the new management team, and resuming business ties. Otherwise, the new management threatened to completely abandon the Chinese subsidiary and the Chinese market.

In response, Nexperia China declared that it is a Chinese company with operations rooted in China and a global strategic vision, and must abide by Chinese laws and operate legally and in compliance with regulations. At all times, Nexperia China is an independent Chinese company with independent management and decision-making. The legal representative has the authority to represent the company's will and is ultimately responsible for all operational decisions.

The letter stated that all operations of Nexperia China and employee salaries and benefits are normal. Currently, the company's production and operations are operating normally, and all work is progressing in an orderly manner. The board of directors and management are fully committed to ensuring the normal operation of the company and will not allow external forces to influence operations or harm employee interests. All Nexperia China team members have established employment relationships with the Chinese company, and their salaries, bonuses, and other benefits will continue to be paid by Nexperia China, not Nexperia Netherlands.

https://x.com/loong_of/status/1979879760181506199

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[Ravenlocke]

Richard

Oct 18
Now suddenly the Dutch minister wants to talk to China after China export ban.....


😂😂😂

https://x.com/ricwe123/status/1979456894927335713

1979456894927335713


Reuters

Oct 19

Dutch minister will meet with China official about seizure of chipmaker Nexperia http://reut.rs/4onTZeZ

https://x.com/Reuters/status/1979940620366966892

1979940620366966892

[Ravenlocke]

Thorsten Benner

Oct 21
The Nexperia effect.
Volkswagen prepares stopping production of Golf and Tiguan in Wolfsburg as of next week.
It will likely run out of chips by the end of the week.

https://x.com/thorstenbenner/status/1980641371007643745

1980641371007643745

Dagny Taggart

Europe is run by idiots.

The negative effect of the theft of the chip company Nexperia from the Chinese appeared within a week: Volkswagen is preparing to stop production of the Golf and Tiguan in Wolfsburg starting next week. By the end of the week, the company will run out of chips. VW's semiconductor stocks barely last for two weeks. As a result, the company plans staff reductions, and thousands of employees may also face temporary downtime.

Nexperia is the world's largest supplier of simple semiconductors such as diodes and transistors. The company also develops advanced microchips for battery management. Its Chinese parent company Wingtech has stopped cooperation and supply of parts to the stolen European company.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) subsequently raised the alarm. The stockpiles at automakers' warehouses lasted only a few weeks.

https://x.com/DagnyTaggart963/status/1980899540912746665

1980899540912746665

[Ravenlocke]

S.L. Kanthan

🔹Netherlands seizes a Chinese company (Nexperia)

🔹So, China stops exporting Nexperia’s semiconductor chips

🔹And Japanese company Honda halts production of cars in Mexico

Welcome to the realities of global supply chain.

https://x.com/Kanthan2030/status/1983732761358954712

1983732761358954712

[Ravenlocke]

Kathleen Tyson

Assembly lines for cars and electrical goods will be shutting down from next week unless Nexperia gets sorted between Dutch and Chinese diplomats today.

Trump agreed yesterday to reverse the BIS 50% Rule that led to the unwise Dutch intervention.

Chinese distributors are being domestically supplied, so disruption only affects the Rest of World.

https://x.com/Kathleen_Tyson_/status/1984209410449633772

1984209410449633772

[Ravenlocke]

S.L. Kanthan

Semiconductor war goes on between the EU and China.

Netherlands now says it won’t ship the wafers to Nexperia’s Chinese subsidiary.

To which, Nexperia replies, “Never mind, we can make our own wafers (and chips).”

https://x.com/Kanthan2030/status/1985422797485850930

1985422797485850930

Kathleen Tyson

Nov 1
Nexperia China will resume global supply of 6 BILLION COMPONENTS PER MONTH with 100% China sourced wafers.

Contract with Nexperia China or close down industrial production.

Payment in RMB only.

Bye, Europe. You lose. Again.

https://x.com/Kathleen_Tyson_/status/1984851204589879558

1984851204589879558

[Ravenlocke]

S.L. Kanthan

Total capitulation & embarrassment for the Netherlands, as it returns the semiconductor chip company Nexperia back to the Chinese parent Wingtech.

All the fake excuses like “national security” have suddenly disappeared.

The Dutch did this silly thing only due to US pressure.

https://x.com/Kanthan2030/status/1991118229956395023

1991118229956395023

Zhao DaShuai 东北进修🇨🇳

The Dutch government have now given up trying to steal the semiconductor company Nexperia from Chinese ownership.

This is the fate of all slaves, abandoned by their masters at the first convenient moment.

The dutch government did this as a pledge of loyalty to the US at the height of China US tensions over trade. Now they're being thrown away like the garbage that they are.

https://x.com/zhao_dashuai/status/1991159532551295074

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Arnaud Bertrand

It's done: the Dutch have "unseized" Nexperia, they've suspended the legislation that they'd invoked to take away the company from China.

Hilariously the reason they give for this is because this will allow the Chinese authorities to resume supplying chips to Europe, which were retaliatory measures taken BECAUSE of this law.

So in effect what they're saying is "we're happy to report that China has constructively agreed to let us surrender" 😅

Src: https://government.nl/documents/diplomatic-statements/2025/11/19/update-on-invoking-goods-availability-act

https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1991091371659481406

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[onawah]

All this sounds like CCP generated reports.
"Saving face" is of utmost importance to the CCP, so they always try to embarrass anyone who opposes them in the most humiliating way possible.
Which directly counters all their claims about wanting peace and prosperity for all the world.
Meanwhile they steal all the patented technology they can get their hands on from other countries.
Stoking their egos is what keeps them going, but their fantasy of world domination will all turn to dust one day.

[Ravenlocke]

Collingwood 🇬🇧

The Netherlands (and more broadly the EU) backed down and are handing Nexperia back to its Chinese owner. A total humiliation; however, it is worth briefly reviewing what this sorry episode tells us about the wretched and increasingly parlous geoeconomic state of the EU.

The Netherlands expropriated Nexperia after coming under pressure from Washington. The EU essentially followed the orders of the US Treasury Department, which said it would apply secondary sanctions on Nexperia as a company more than 50% owned by a sanctioned entity.

As Europe has showed time and again, it has no defence against US sanctions of this sort, so it has to comply. This means, in effect, that Washington can use European market access, as well as access to the US market, as leverage in negotiations. And ironically, that's exactly what it did in this case, trading away as part of negotiations with Beijing the very rule with which the Netherlands sought to comply. In other words, the Europeans damaged their economy and reputation to follow a US rule which the US decided it would not follow a matter of days later.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the ledger, the Netherlands (and the broader EU) authorities seem not to have considered the consequences of their decision to expropriate Nexperia. They genuinely appeared to believe that they could steal a multi-billion dollar company from China and it could all be smoothed over with few problems.

The combination of arrogance and stupidity is actually frightening. Instead, China, predictably, responded by immediately cutting the supply of the components Nexperia needed to operate, which threatened to halt entirely key EU industries, including the automotive industry, and then refusing any compromise short of an immediate return of Nexperia to its legal owners. This sent Netherlands and EU diplomats scrambling for a solution. But they appear to have realised that not only do they have no defence against US sanctions (on companies or individuals: see my earlier post about the ICC judge), but have no defence against Chinese economic coercion: it was trivially simple for China to bring the EU to heel on this matter; it didn't even require the deployment of the heavy economic artillery.

Thus is the state of the EU: already poor compared with the US—which less than two decades ago had a comparable GDP/capita to Europe—forced through the folly of its Russia policy and the insidious presence of US structures in every facet of the European economic, social, military and political spheres into ever-greater vassalage that wreaks evermore damage on the EU economy. Unable to defend itself from the consequences of that damage. Geopolitically impotent. Without a strategy. Run by arrogant fools.

@arisroussinos
said years ago that Macron was right about the EU needing more strategic autonomy. He still is, but is now too weak to lead.

@PM_ViktorOrban
's policy is right today, but is Hungary big enough to lead?

TAGGING:
@RnaudBertrand

@AcademicAgent_X

@AaronBastani

@baoshaoshan

@battleforeurope

@bneeditor

https://x.com/admcollingwood/status/1991422929523896739

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[onawah]

All businesses originating in China are owned by the CCP, so allowing them to run businesses in the Netherlands (or any other country) is leaving a door wide open for the CCP to conduct secret invasive tactics in support of their various nefarious agendas.

Collingwood 🇬🇧
The Netherlands (and more broadly the EU) backed down and are handing Nexperia back to its Chinese owner. A total humiliation; however, it is worth briefly reviewing what this sorry episode tells us about the wretched and increasingly parlous geoeconomic state of the EU.